Mound City, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mound City, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Mound City lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Mound City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mound City — the short answer
Mound City, Illinois: USDA zone 7a, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 432 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 432 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7a is Mound City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mound City's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mound City
Each reading below is measured for Mound City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMound City runs about 245 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMound City sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Mound City is in
Mound City sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mound City's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Pulaski County is mostly Interior River Valleys and Hills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Mound City
Every plant below cleared Mound City's own zone 7a and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mound City?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Mound City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mound City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Cut-MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CRAIN ENTERPRISES INCBrownfields · 750 ft
- SECO MFG CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
- I03C0604Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- Mound City Nat CemeteryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 12113Brownfields · 2.4 mi
- Fill Up MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- MOUNDS PRODUCTION CO LLCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- Meridian High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Fitzgerald Garage & Wrecker ServUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Dodd's 66Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Mounds Fire DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mound City's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Mound City.
Total Sites
165
within ~10 miles of Mound City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mound City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mound City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mound City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mound City — Superfund (3 sites) and Nitrate (58 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Mound City
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mound City average
Your land is one point inside Mound City
Everything above resolves to Mound City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 432 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Mound City Average
Mound City Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Mound City
- ●One soil character for all of Mound City
- ●Frost dates read at Mound City's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mound City's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mound City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mound City, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mound City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mound City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mound City average
How we know this about Mound City
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Mound City’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Mound City
When does frost risk typically end in Mound City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mound City typically lands around Mar 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 8.
When is the first frost in Mound City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mound City typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mound City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mound City sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Nov 4, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mound City?
The federal record around Mound City is a meaningful one — 165 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (82), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Mound City?
From about Oct 19 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mound City's scale — its 7a band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mound City's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Mound City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mound City's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 432 acres it covers and 165 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mound City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mound City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 18 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 165 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mound City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mound City's boundary and the 432 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mound City sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mound City's 432 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pulaski County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pulaski County
- The growing challenges every Illinois grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Illinois
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Pulaski County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mound City's 432 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mound City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 432 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Mound City-wide figureread your own land →